Only About 650 People Saw Anna Paquin's New Movie Margaret Last Weekend

Margaret is the brain child of Analyze This, That, and Gangs of New York screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan, who also wrote and directed You Can Count On Me. The film was shot back in 2005 with Lonergan at the helm and has since turned into a train wreck of epic proportions. Not only did it take nearly seven years for the film to get edited, but along the way several big names tried to help but were refused by Lonergan, only prolonging the process. Eventually, the financiers behind the film, Camelot Pictures, sued Fox Searchlight and Lonergan for “thwarting their efforts to complete the film.” Nasty stuff.

Now in 2011, the film was released, if you can call it that, and the results are staggeringly bad. Shown on only two theaters country-wide, Margaret only pulled in about $7,500 over the weekend. The Projector provided us with some quick math that says that with NY theaters charging $11, and LA theaters charging $13, tickets cost about $12 on average, so at each of the 24 total showings, Margaret pulled $312.50 which equals out to be about 26 people per showing, meaning 624 people saw this movie. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a movie with 26 people in the theater, but that place feels empty.

Taking into account another 400 or so reviewers and early screenings that got to see the film early, only about 1,000 people have seen Margaret and that’s sad considering the amount of time Lonergan has sunk into it. It’s not without the possibility of future success as the film is rife with big names like Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno, and Matthew Broderick, and even our own Katey Rich gave it three stars--a modest showing, but ultimately a watchable film. But the sad truth is that the few people who have even heard of Margaret will dismiss it as being expired before it even hit the shelves, and the film will be woefully forgotten by most save for Lonergan, and you just can’t help but feel bad for him.